Marketing Happy Hour - Marketing a New Category | Brianda Gonzalez of The New Bar

Starting point is 00:00:00 you're listening to the marketing happy hour podcast where we discuss career and industry insights with our peers in marketing we're here to talk about it all like the ups and downs of working in social media how to build authentic relationships in the influencer and pr space managing a nine-to-five and a side hustle at the same time, how to be productive in your life and career without losing your sanity, and more. Ultimately, we're here to build a community with you because we're all trying to navigate the world of marketing together. Are you ready? Grab your favorite drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode. Hey, Marketing Happy Hour listeners,

Starting point is 00:00:53 we are so excited for you to hear this week's conversation with Brianda Gonzalez, founder of The New Bar, a non-alcoholic bottle shop and online discovery platform inspired by and built around her journey to find and understand one-to-one alcohol alternatives. In this episode, Brianna shares a peek into building and marketing the brand, how they became the first official alcohol-free retail partner at Coachella, why community building is the driving factor in their growth journey, and more. Grab a drink and listen in. Hi, Brianda. How are you? Hello. I am doing well. I'm really excited to be here today. We are so stoked to have you. We recently got some goodies from the new bar and have just been

Starting point is 00:01:42 completely obsessed with everything in our package. So we have to know before we get started today, what is typically in your glass from the new bar? What are you sipping on recently? Right now I'm pretty obsessed with the new Gia, um, Sprint. They just launched a couple of weeks ago. They have this sumac and chili spin on their traditional little aperitivo spritz. And I just love a spicy kind of funky drink. So that's what I've been gravitating to around five o'clock, sometimes a little bit earlier because it's non-alcoholic. Yes. Oh, that's so awesome. I admittedly actually consumed all of the beverages that we were sent over in our package. So I don't have one with me today, but I have been trying them throughout

Starting point is 00:02:30 recent episodes. I tried the kin euphorics, uh, sunshine drink, uh, during our last episode, when I chatted with Kate of anthropology and de soi, I think it's called, um, when I sat down with social media expert expert Jack Appleby. So we've had a lot of enjoyment around just non-alcoholic beverages in general, especially from the new bar. So like Cassie said, super excited to have you today. But first, can you just share a little bit about your background and kind of the inspiration behind your brand?

Starting point is 00:03:02 I know that you have a little bit of background in marketing, so I would love to hear what that was like for you. Yeah, so I actually came from my career path, really post-college was in tech. And so I did field marketing. So a lot of experiential, a lot of strategic partnerships and partnership marketing in that realm as well. And I think the pivot into food and beverage and CPG initially felt kind of like a wild switch up from the tech world.

Starting point is 00:03:42 But so much of my upbringing really has been in food and beverage. I grew up in a hospitality economy on Catalina Island. And if you've ever visited Catalina, it's a tiny town. There's 16 bars in a one square mile. A lot of people come there to unwind and enjoy and relax. And that's very much the context that I grew up in. So when I decided to build the new bar, I really found that all of that passion I had grown up around food and beverage and my marketing skillset and just experience in partnerships and building meaningful relationships with the partners that I worked with really blended themselves quite well. But the idea for the new bar really came when my dad got sick a few years ago. And that kind of was a pretty scary moment for my family.

Starting point is 00:04:50 We're very much very close. Me and my dad are really used to spending a lot of time together. We really like to create yummy things together and are really into mixology. But when we found out he had an autoimmune disease, alcohol had to, you know, kind of make its way out of our lives. And that really was the jolt that initiated my interest in this category and ultimately led me to make the jump. Wow. I love hearing that story. And, you know, most brands that are really passionate about what they're putting out there have stemmed from a personal connection or

Starting point is 00:05:33 personal experience. And so I love hearing that that was kind of a part of your journey as well. Could you just share a little bit around the mission of the new bar? Yeah, our mission is really to show people that it's fun to be good to yourself. I think, you know, it's pretty simple at the end of the day, to make it accessible for people to treat themselves with a little bit more kindness, to maybe do things that are better for their body without necessarily having to change their entire lives and the way that they daily lives. And I think we've done a pretty good job of making that visceral to people. And I'm so excited to, to keep doing that. We're very, very passionate about approaching the category from that stance. That's amazing. Well, let's kind of dive into

Starting point is 00:06:25 events a little bit too. You know, a key principle of the brand's development was creating those fun and unexpected events that were based around this alcohol-free atmosphere. So what have been your favorite moments in events while building the new bar? And do you have any kind of elements you'd like to share that you found drove success of the events? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think for, for us, uh, building through community and through fun, um, has always been integral to who we are and how we want to grow. So events are just a huge portion of showing people in action, as I said, very viscerally that they can actually have a good time without drinking alcohol, which we've all grown so accustomed to incorporating in most social or perceived fun settings.

Starting point is 00:07:26 I think for me, some of my favorite moments that tend to happen at events, I love when we show up and we very much present like a bar, right? Because our goal is to really give people the same experience that they're used to and make it feel truly equally exciting, equally fancy, equally complex. And so I love when we do that so well that somebody walks up to our bar for doing a pop up of sorts and they actually think they're approaching an alcoholic bar. That might seem frustrating to somebody if somebody like walks up and they're like, oh, this is actually non-alcoholic. But when you see the light bulb kind of switch in people and they realize, oh, this actually exists. This is actually an option for me. And you know what? I'm down. I'll take a non-alcoholic drink instead. So I love when our loyal consumer base approaches us, but I sometimes love even more when I could actually

Starting point is 00:08:34 see the moment of changing a mind and seeing those people kind of walk away with a new perspective and a really exciting drink in their hand. So to me, that's also an element of a really successful event, right? It's not just kind of shouting into an echo chamber and only speaking to people who already know that this exists. It's successful to me when I've changed a mind and reached out to somebody new that actually had no idea this was an option for them to integrate into their lifestyle. So that's been an incredible part of events. And I think it's hard to replicate that online sometimes, you know, that feeling. So I truly love that. Beyond that, I think another thing I love to see at smaller scale events, and we've been seeing this a lot recently is people will come to an

Starting point is 00:09:25 event, they'll meet a new friend, and then they'll show up to our next event with that new friend. And I really think when we do that consistently and successfully, we're not just showing people that they can have a good time, but we're giving them tools beyond anything that has something to do with the new bar, right? We're giving them a whole network of like-minded individuals who are going to be exploring this new way of doing things with them. And so to me, that's success. If I've introduced new people to new ideas and also given them an extension of a support system or another element of life that will make that

Starting point is 00:10:06 more fun for them to explore, then I've done a pretty good job. Are there any tips that you have as well around, you know, making sure that those connections you're making with the people attending the events leave a lasting impression with them? So I'm kind of thinking in the angle of obviously having this fun experience for them that is memorable in the moment, but what are you guys kind of doing to ensure even after leaving that event, they're remembering the brand they're excited about the brand. Maybe they take a step to convert, whether that's with physical materials you're passing out, or even just the way that you present yourselves as a team to the people out there attending the events? Yeah, I think there are physical takeaway things that we always try to create. So a lot of our events that are, um, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:59 are built with fun in mind, but they're also educational in a lot of ways. So we've done things like a mixology class, if you will. We've done things like wine and cheese pairings, but with non-alcoholic wine, right? And at each of those events, we definitely have physical handbooks that are not just about the event or a coupon code, but they're actually giving you information that you probably found really interesting. And we've had so many people reach out to us after those events and ask us questions like, oh, you know, there was, there's this one recipe that we had in the handbook and we did this. I'm wondering, you know, if I'm out of this thing, could I supplement with another, or you mentioned that non-alcoholic wine is made this way. What about that brand in particular? And so we're really keen on continuing the conversation

Starting point is 00:11:51 post events and making ourselves accessible to people. We're so active on social media. I don't think we ever let a DM go unanswered if we can humanly help it. And that's been, it's been wonderful to see just the impact and the curiosity kind of extend beyond the one night. I think beyond that, at a lot of our events, we give people an opportunity to basically opt into topics related to the event, whether that be through our newsletter, through, you know, being willing to find out about future events, or even making a next plan for our next event at the current event. So we're not really like waiting until you've gone home and it's been a few weeks. We're actively listening and letting you know, if you mentioned you're interested in this,

Starting point is 00:12:50 we actually have something for that. And you should consider coming with maybe the person you met tonight. Yeah. That's so brilliant in terms of just like keeping the momentum going with the consumer journey. I love that. And then I love how you touched on to like the experience that you have in real life with your customer or whoever it may be coming to these events, maybe they're not a customer yet, is really something that can inform your content, your social media posts, your newsletter, even future events. Like you said, I think that's incredible. And that's why I love events and love talking about events. So I'm glad you touched on all of that. Could you just share a little bit around, I've noticed on social that you talk a lot

Starting point is 00:13:29 about the events that you have actually in store in LA, I believe. What has that experience kind of been like and has that differed from other markets that maybe you're popping up in? Yeah, I think the interesting thing about doing things in your own physical space versus popping up at, you know, at a new location, they both have, in my mind, a pro and a con.

Starting point is 00:13:56 If somebody is physically in your space and they have this experience in your space, they very much walk away with like a super strong attachment to the brand and a really like actual real physical kind of point of guidance around what you are and what that space feels like. And so we really love when we have the opportunity to bring people in. Our store is in LA. And I think that the beauty of being able to reach beyond your four walls is that you are, as I said, right, not just shouting into a chamber or only reaching out to your local community. You do really get to work with new people, introduce the brand beyond just, you know, one store location. But I've, I found that some of those really incredible loyal fans are often made inside the store. And so as we look to grow, we'll always have programming and providing a physical

Starting point is 00:15:02 novel space to people as part of our strategy. I love that so much. And I think it's so important. I want to talk a little bit about Coachella. So the new bar was the first official alcohol-free retail partner at Coachella. That is huge. That is incredible. Congratulations on that. What was that experience like and what did you learn about the process of experiential events on this large of a scale? for context. I think we had been alive as a brand and as a company for maybe four months when we reached out to Coachella and decided to pitch this idea of bringing a more inclusive and novel experience to festival goers. So I think it was incredible to be able to take on such a large challenge. But the thing that I learned about experiential events on this large of a scale is that they can be all consuming 100%. And that they really are what you make of them. I think it's very

Starting point is 00:16:21 easy to think about like, okay, this big moment will be the weekend that I am there. And it'll be like my physical space that I'm putting together in this cool activation, but it's actually so much more than that. And I think that you can create so much buzz prior to the event. You can nurture your relationships with your customers that you've met at the event for so much longer beyond that. And it really is about what you're going to make of the opportunity. So we were presented with this huge thing. And I think that a lot of what we did really well was to start to think about, okay, what is like the smallest, most grassroots thing we can do to not get lost in the scale of the thing? And what are the things that we can do to integrate in as many aspects of the festival as possible. So it's not just a booth or an activation on the grounds. It's

Starting point is 00:17:28 how do we actually kind of build the momentum around this entire thing? And I really loved being so creative with where we could exist and how we could do things. So we ended up, for example, activating at their sober campsite. So they actually ended up doing a sober camping offering because they saw such a great response. And so it was about being really agile and being like, okay, great, let's do it. We've seen this response, let's make it happen. And then how do we actually participate in that part of the programming now? We were added to Outstanding in the Field dinner series, right? So that's another touch point throughout the weekend from people that might not have known about our specific bar setup otherwise. And it felt like a lot of it was really based on having a partnership mindset first and really working with the Coachella team from the mutual

Starting point is 00:18:37 understanding of like, we both want this to be successful. Let's give and take and bend however we need to, to make that that a reality so people have a meaningful experience and we don't get lost in in the scale of the thing that is so awesome to hear and you mentioned that the team was pretty small who kind of like ideated and then executed on this event uh what did the team look like specifically like what kind of moving parts were there? Like who was involved? All of that. Yeah. I think the story of the new bar has really been build lean and like lean on a lot of friends. And so that was definitely the case here too. At the time I was the only full-time employee for the new bar. And I had two incredible part-time employees help. So we had an operations manager who really helped us kind of project manage the whole thing.

Starting point is 00:19:35 Our community manager who was also, you know, thinking through social and creative and photography and recipe ideation. And so it was all hands on deck. And then we have some incredibly talented friends that helped us design the actual set, right? So I have a friend who's an architectural designer. He actually works at a lot of, he does a lot of festivals and concerts and things like that. So we tapped him to help. It was definitely not one of those things where you bring on a, an agency that does experiential and builds the thing for you and does the whole thing. It was, it was really this small group of people, a couple of contractors that helped with graphic design. But we were building PR boxes and sourcing materials. And it was incredibly fun to build it that way and to feel so close to the whole process. I love that. I think it even makes it a little bit more special

Starting point is 00:20:42 that you were involved in so many aspects with all of these different people that you, you know, collected over the years as friends and colleagues. And I love that so much. Do you have any tips for brands outside of the space or even inside of the space to just activate well at Coachella aside from, you know, stay lean, make sure that you don't get caught up in the scale of the thing and make sure that you're fostering authentic relationships. Are there any other pieces of the puzzle that you would just want to make somebody aware of if they're not already who might want to activate on this type of scale? Well, first of all, probably get a sauna or some sort of project management tool. There's so many little elements that you won't think about or even unforeseen costs that you probably won't know until they've arrived.

Starting point is 00:21:33 So I think taking the time to like scope out actually what will go into everything. If you're drafting contracts and agreements, you're probably going to need a lawyer to help with that. That's probably a cost that you might not have thought about, right? You're thinking about ingredients and display and all of those things, but there's a lot of more logistical, minute things that end up adding up. So I would really take the time to scope it all out and think about what's the most boring part of this that I'm not thinking about because I'm so excited about this opportunity. And I think beyond that, it's really not thinking about the activation is like that weekend in that moment.

Starting point is 00:22:22 It's about generating buzz. I feel like we're still, you know, months after this activation, seeing the impact of it and hearing so much conversation around it and so many new customers from it. And it's because we really kind of thought about building momentum around it beyond that, that one weekend in that one moment. I love that so much. I love hearing about the insides of these huge events like that. And just so cool that you all have had the opportunity to work with them. Uh, but would love to switch gears to online here just shortly. So you all have a fantastic website, uh, and I love just how customized and fluid the online shopping experience is. And

Starting point is 00:23:07 I know you mentioned having a tech background and just kind of dabbling in some of those spaces before building this brand. So would love to hear kind of the process or even tools that you all love to use that have gone into building such a great online platform? Yeah, I come from a digital analytics background. So my whole, I spent so much time thinking, you know, for years about people's experiences online, how people navigate a website, what kinds of friction points exist. And so I very much built the website with that in mind, but I also, you know, just kind of zoomed out and thought

Starting point is 00:23:52 about how can I build the online experience to mirror as much as possible the conversation or the experience you would have if you walked into a liquor store and asked for help, right? If you walked into a really nice wine shop, somebody might ask, you know, you might say, hi, I'm going to a dinner or I'm celebrating a friend's birthday. And I'm looking for something that tastes like this. I don't like that. And you would arrive at a thing that you actually really love. And so as we were building the website, we very much kept that in mind. And so I did a ton of customer journey mapping based on that experience and that idea alone. I think, you know, it, it's a little less technical than it might seem in a lot of cases. Sometimes it was me with my iPad drawing things out and really just kind of creating a

Starting point is 00:24:54 little bit of a map of what the navigation opportunities would look like. But we, we did use a few great tools that helped us build that kind of conversational navigation. One of the things I actually really love about our website is this drink discovery engine that we built, if you will. And so we created a quiz. I'm on the website currently taking the quiz because I wanted to see what the experience was like. So please go on, tell us about the quiz. Yeah, it's amazing. And so the quiz is really like designed to be like, you're talking to a friend who, or like a, you know, somebody who works at an incredible wine shop or whatever. So they're asking, you know, we ask you questions that we would probably ask a friend to make a good recommendation. And it's really things like, you know, what do you typically like to drink? When are you drinking? What are some flavors that you do like? What are some things

Starting point is 00:25:58 we might want to stay away from if you have any dietary restrictions. And we spent so much time on this and I actually think I still test it all the time. And I'm like, if I were this person, what would I get? And every time I arrive at it, I'm like, yeah, that's a really good recommendation. Actually, I would do that. So I really loved building that out. And, you know, there's so many tools that, that help you do that without having to actually use a ton of code now. But we've, we've done a great job, I think, of just keeping the human experience at the forefront. And that's, that's really what I think differentiates the site from other transactional kind of e-commerce experiences you might have. Yeah. Well, speaking of that experience, education, I'm sure is a huge piece of what you guys do,

Starting point is 00:26:53 especially because the non-alcohol space is still kind of fairly new for a lot of brands. There's a lot of brands who were in the alcoholic space now kind of dabbling in that. And there's also just these new brands in general launching directly into that space. So how has kind of education played a part for you guys, both on the website and on social, just to sharing with people why this is not only beneficial, but how they can still have a great experience or have a wonderful beverage that isn't alcoholic. Yeah. I think a lot of it is about making it feel accessible. I think sometimes giving people a lot of information or wanting to be educational can actually lead you to give information that's overwhelming and daunting for the consumer. So we have a few rules whenever we're writing any content or whenever we're doing anything really. It's, is this accessible? How would you explain this to a friend in casual

Starting point is 00:27:56 conversation, right? It should feel colloquial. It should feel like you're not making it an insane ask of a person, right? So if we're trying to convince you to explore drinking less, I'm not going to tell you that being sober is 100% the best thing that you can do. And you're silly if you're having a drop of alcohol, because that makes it a little bit less of an inviting conversation to have. So you'll see that a lot of the content that we make on social, a lot of what we talk about on our blog or even on our product pages is centered around that idea of making incremental change, making these like seemingly foreign concepts just feel a little bit more easy to understand. And then we really have focused on making how to use these products feel pretty simple and straightforward. So we have an awesome recipe library. Whenever you're exploring a product on

Starting point is 00:29:02 our page, we have kind of our little friend note that we would say to it, like how we would describe this drink to a friend beyond, you know, whatever the technical description of a drink is. We have recipes of how we like to, you know, to mix with whatever spirit is on the website. So as you see each product, there's tactical things you can do. So you kind of know where to start. And so much of that translates to social, right? So we do a lot of that similar content there too around, okay, if you like this kind of drink, here's how you can replicate it with all non-alcoholic drinks. Or if you're into this kind of beer, you can swap it with this non-alcoholic drinks. Or if you're into this kind of beer, you can swap it with this non-alcoholic option, even if that's just your second or third beer. It's okay if you have one alcoholic beer, if you're into that. It's all about being accessible, I think, at the end

Starting point is 00:29:56 of the day. I love that. And as you were speaking, I was browsing these sections on your website, the blog. I love all of the titles. They're very inviting and entices people to kind of see what the, those blogs entail. And then also on the website, on the recipe page, I was scrolling and I found the first one is a non-alcoholic new groany. Anyone who listens to the podcast knows that my favorite cocktail is a new groany. So I am very excited to get all of these things and try that out because I really would love to try that. So definitely if you're out there and you're curious about what Brianda has been chatting about, go to the Nubar website,

Starting point is 00:30:38 browse for yourself. It's super informational and super inspirational actually for even if you're on your own journey of building a website, it has all of these elements that make something accessible, make something feel approachable to a new customer. So I love that. Let's talk a little bit about other ways that you might be marketing the new bar to prospective customers. Are you doing any influencer? Are you doing any, you know, paid ads, anything like that, that you can speak to? Yeah. So we're actually, this is a great time for this conversation because we just turned one, all of our growth has been organic to date. And it's really been awesome to see the traction we've been able to gain that way. And now we're in this position where we're like, okay, cool. We've got this awesome momentum. We've got this great engine going. How do we

Starting point is 00:31:30 thoughtfully layer in other aspects into our programming in a way that feels authentic and feels impactful and honestly with profitability in mind, because I think you can get carried away in building the other direction and then trying to find a way to creating that organic momentum. And so it's a great place to build from. We just got started on affiliate marketing. So I've been spending a lot of time learning about how that works. I think we've done a great job of getting some awesome press just by the nature of what we're doing and how we're doing things. But thinking about capitalizing on some of those opportunities in a way that actually can directly lead to more sales has been top of mind. So we're trying affiliate marketing

Starting point is 00:32:27 more with the editorial mindset and the publishing mindset rather than influencer right away. And I think influencer marketing can be done so well, but I really want to make sure that we do it in a way that feels authentic to us. I have a fundamental belief that consumers are really, really smart and that especially younger generations are kind of tired of seeing brands paying other people to have fun so that they can watch them having fun instead of, uh, you know, making it easy for that consumer to have that fun experience themselves. So, um, we really, um, have a more relaxed and organic approach to interacting and engaging, uh,

Starting point is 00:33:21 personalities that have actually shared an interest in what we're doing. And so we're always being really, really thoughtful about how we do that. So turning on paid ads, turning on affiliate, really slowly easing into the influencer realm where it makes sense. I actually really love micro influencers quite a bit. That feels a little bit more authentic to us. And up until recently we were, it was just kind of me going rogue, doing email and retention marketing. So now we're getting a little bit more disciplined about that too. And that's been a fun process. Amazing. We're so excited to look out for some of those updates and just pay attention to everything

Starting point is 00:34:08 that you all have going on with the brand. But want to kind of dive into a question we really, really love asking on this show, just as we speak to career in general or business in general. But Brianda, what do you know now that you wish you knew early on in your career? The biggest thing I know now that I kind of, I wish I had known sooner because I probably would have had a much easier time is just how small, big challenges will feel when they're in the rear view mirror, I suppose. I think about even just two years ago when I was starting to work on the new bar and I had a really hard day

Starting point is 00:34:51 and what that felt like and how existential some of the challenges I faced felt. And I think today I sometimes face way tougher challenges and something, I don't know if it's like a desensitized, like you get desensitized to the thing, or you just become more capable of approaching a big challenge because you've tackled so many behind you that you're like, okay, cool. This is another one. I'm going to get through that. And I wish I had that perspective a little bit earlier on because it's easy to feel a bit overwhelmed or to feel like you're in survival mode or a challenge could make or break you at any given time. And the reality is that that is probably true. I think depending on how you approach a problem, you very much could have one or the other outcome. But yeah, I wish I knew how

Starting point is 00:35:56 capable I was a little bit sooner. Oh my gosh, I love that. That's so encouraging. And we're hearing that a lot from people that come on the show, and they just kind of echo that sentiment. And then a lot of our friends are dealing with some of those hard times right now. So it's great to give perspective on that, like, in the rear view, it won't feel as big as it feels now, you can do it, you can get through it. I love that. Brianda, we are approaching the end here. Like Cassie said, where can everyone find you? Follow along with what you're up to and everything with The New Bar. Yeah, you can follow us on Instagram at The New Bar. You can definitely check us out online

Starting point is 00:36:35 and probably should join our newsletter because we always have fun stuff there at thenewbar.com. And we also dabble on TikTok. So if you want some silly content from time to time uh you could find us there with the same handle at the new bar fantastic we will link out to that in the show notes everyone just knows where to go to click and access you all but thank you so much again for joining us today this has been awesome like we said we're big fans of the so this has been a treat talking to you thank Thank you for having me. I've had a great time. That's it for this week's episode. Thanks so much again for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode,

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Marketing Happy Hour - Marketing a New Category | Brianda Gonzalez of The New Bar

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